Colleges, univs to work 6 days a week from Feb 8

Colleges, univs to work 6 days a week from Feb 8

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:06.02.2021

The Tamil Nadu government has directed colleges and universities to function six days a week from February 8 to cover syllabus and conduct practical classes. Colleges are planning to use the six working days to split the strength and conduct classes on alternate days.

The state government has allowed higher educational institutions to conduct physical classes for undergraduate and postgraduate students from February  8. It has allowed hostels for the students to function.

In an order issued on Wednesday, higher education secretary Apoorva directed colleges and universities — including arts, science, technical and engineering — to function six days a week by following standard operating procedures till the end of the academic year 2020-21.

“We are going to start physical classes with 50% of first year students on Monday. The classes will be split into two batches and each batch attend classes on alternate days,” said S Santhosh Baboo, principal of DG Vaishnav College.

Around 9,000 students are enrolled in the college in two shifts. The college expects around 4,000 students a day in the classrooms.

Ethiraj College for Women also plans to have only 50% of students on alternate days. “We expect around 3,000 students for physical classes from Monday,” said S Kothai, principal of the college. The college plans to continue with online classes for students who are not able to attend the physical classes.

Madras Christian College will let in students on campus in a staggered manner. “We have called second year students from February 10. Next, first year students will attend classes from February 24 and remaining students will come from March 7,” said Paul Wilson, principal of the college.

Anna University has issued a staggered schedule to be followed from February 8 on its campuses and colleges.

University officials said they wanted to maintain one student per room in the hostel throughout the semester. As per the schedule, the university would allow one year students additionally at any given time in the semester to maintain social distancing.

The government has let higher educational institutions conduct classes for undergraduate and postgraduate students